Hotaru no Hikari
by blo0p
Summary: Another time, another setting. This story follows the events of a contract Sebastian had made with another person, before Ciel.
1. Escape

Hallo thar', hope you have fun reading this as much as I had fun writing this. This story is based on another contract Sebastian had with another person, before Ciel. The setting is in Japan, made-up village, long ago. I don't really know about Japanese titles like san, chan, sama, and stuff so much so I won't be using those and I won't be using any difficult Japanese vocabulary either, forgive me on that.

Oh, and I own nothing of the Kuroshitsuji series (boo!). I do, however, own the plot, characters, and setting (yay!). Bow down to me.

Or just continue on to read the thing.

**Hotaru no Hikari **

The Light of the Firefly

_Escape_

Shiori slipped on her wooden sandals. Gently and cautiously, the young girl made her way out of her mansion, making sure no one saw her in the process. If she got caught, it would be very troublesome. You could hear no sound except the cries of the cicadas that dissolved into the warm summer night. The stars winked at the peaceful little village of Hikari up above in the dark sky.

"I need to get away from all of this," the petite girl murmured as she pushed back the bushes and leaves that surrounded the village entirely, tiny bits of rustling could be heard as she disappeared inside the dark shades of green. Shiori was making her way to the forest, and from there she could make her way to the pond – to go to her favorite place, to meet her favorite person. The seventeen year-old smiled softly as she thought of _him_.

After what felt like an eternity, Shiori had finally made her way to the pond. Being at the pond felt as if the time froze completely, everything was so still – except for the lightening bugs that lingered on top of the water's surface. There was a curvy bridge on top of the body of water that allowed you to exit this particular area, but she had no intentions of doing that.

A figure stood on the bridge with his back resting on the wooden railing of it, the male being very still like the place itself. Shiori recognized the man immediately, and smiled generously to herself. It was her favorite person afterall, waiting for her. _Just like he said_.

"Itsuki!" Shiori called out, and almost immediately the figure turned around to reveal himself, proving the young girl's assumptions right. The man smiled softly, his face glowing as the fireflies' light shined on his face. He had messy bronze hair, and was draped in his usual attire – a kimono and the belt-pocket to hold his sword in.

---

"Shiori," the young man said her name under his breath and patted her head, her steel-blue colored wavy hair that was lying freely on her back ruffled a little but Shiori didn't mind. She had other things to worry about now. The girl giggled and blushed slightly at the touch, her face now glowing the same way as the man's.

"I'm so, so happy to see you, Itsuki! I've been very, very worried lately.. I – I don't know what to do.. I think I'm going to go really, really crazy with all of this happening," the girl said with a child-like innocence dancing in her voice as she faced the insects that played around in the air, now leaning on the railings with the brown-haired man. Even though there wasn't any detectable emotion on her face at the time, her eyes showed sadness and loneliness.

Itsuki noticed this and smiled sadly at her, his fists clenched. "Hmm, it must be really difficult for you, Shiori. Losing your father and loved ones so suddenly, in such a small amount of time. You're a very strong person, Shiori.. I really admire you and your strength."

Shiori didn't look away from the fireflies, "do you really think so? That I'm strong? Right now I feel so, so worthless and small, I'm unable to do anything. There were so, so many deaths in the village recently, I'm suppose to be their leader after father and.. I've failed them, I don't know what to --"

"But there wasn't anything you could do! There wasn't anything.. anyone could do. It just happened. Don't blame yourself, Shiori. I also feel the same as you.. But it isn't fair to put all of this blame in one person!" Itsuki voiced out his reason with a much higher tone than before, Shiori was a little taken back but she didn't let it show.

"But everyone has expectations of me.. Little children look up to me and so do their parents, wondering if I can give them a good future. I don't know what to do.. I'm a failure, Itsuki, and don't try to deny it – I am, I know it. I just.. I want to fly away, like these here fireflies and just, play and glow forever.. and then hide when winter comes," the girl's eyes now glowing even brighter as two-three fireflies approached her, but quickly decided against it and flew off. Shiori frowned.

Itsuki laughed at that. "I know. I know how much you love fireflies, which is why I brought you here. Don't worry, we're going to face all of our troubles together," the man declared as he stretched out his hand and cupped one of Shiori's. The blue-haired girl blushed again at the physical contact, this time deeper than before. Together they quietly stared at the still pond and wished the time would pause.

Then _that_ happened.

---

Shiori tried to moved her arms, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't. Her whole body was wet, dipped with both water and blood. Lots of blood sticking to her neck and chest. The girl coughed and coughed, grasping for breath. But no matter how much she struggled, only a certain crimson liquid escaped her lips as she opened her mouth widely. The young girl was battered, with her Kimono torn in various places and bruises appearing all over her body. Yet, she couldn't give up. She _musn't_.

And that was when she saw a tall shadowy figure. She thought it was a black cat at first, narrowing its blood-colored eyes at her. But as she blinked again and again, trying to see properly, she saw a figure of _something_ – a something she wasn't sure of what it was, but it was staring down at her from above and had claws and heels and the most scariest eyes ever. She could see its fangs as he grinned at her, her body trembling and shaking. She hadn't been so scared in her entire life. But even with those circumstances, she couldn't help utter these words before finally closing her eyes shut.

"Help.. me."


	2. Innocence

Thank you, guys! :P Two reviews and one alert-request thing, not bad for a prologue. This is a self-reflection chapter, I'm thinking of randomly adding these in the story because they give an in-depth description of a character's thoughts. What do you guys think? Should I? Hopefully, this will solve last chapter's cliffhanger -- well, most of it, anyway. Story's going to progress more in the next chapter, promise!

_Innocence _

My name was Shiori Akiyama, daughter of the deceased Minoru Akiyama.

My family have been the leaders of the little village known as Hikari. Initially, Hikari was a small part of a bigger village. The townspeople relied on us for the rich agriculture that our little area provided, but since the land we lived in was rural area everyone looked down on us. They started treating our people bad, making them do extra work with lesser pay, forcing everyone to pay high taxes, and bullying our people just because they thought were better off than us – everyone was soon sick of it.

A resistance group that was led by my grandfather was then formed. There was a lot of fighting and bloodshed, but even with lesser people, with our unity and strong fiery ambition we managed to defeat them. Ever since then, we've been a separate village – the relationship between the two villages gone bad to worse.

We named our village Hikari because the god of sky seemed to always smile upon us, through good times and bad, lighting our homes and heart. The weather was always warm throughout the year, and you could smell the nature trying to spread its wings all around you, grasping you with its beauty and simplicity. Many people might not think so, but all the villagers here and I thought it's an amazing place to grow up in and worth fighting its freedom for.

I grew up with no mother, but I had no regrets. I had my grandparents and my very loving father with me. I also had other relatives, and together we lived happily. I grew up in an over-protected and sheltered world given to me by my father. He loved me too much to ever see me get hurt. So I spent most of my life at home, playing with kids in the village, playing pranks on the cranky old man who liked fishing, learning how to cook so I could prove to my dad at how responsible I've become – and that was basically what my world revolved around.

Looking back now, I pity myself. I was wrapped around by a veil of innocence.

Is innocence really a good thing? Most people marvel at innocence because there were only few innocent people in the world – the rest were cunning and malicious, and only did things for their benefit. Innocence only means that you aren't aware of the cold reality that takes place in the world, you live and dream of your perfect world where everyone and everything is made from drops of purity and sincerity. You wake up to its light every morning shining down your face and sleep as the light from outside of your window slowly fades away, having no worry whatsoever. But the truth is far from all that.

Innocence is meant to be crushed by the reality that's bound to happen to you with a pull of the strings by fate. Innocence is not knowing, not being taught, not being logical, and not being strong. If only I was told what was going to happen to me back then. Maybe I hadn't been too shocked to see my clothes tainted red.

I met a person, the one I thought I was destined to be with ever since I laid my eyes at him. At that time, I thought my happy ending was marrying and starting a family with him, and spending the rest of my life devoting to him. It was simple and pure, but it wasn't a path for me to take. I was meant for something else. Happy endings don't always happen, they're just a false fragment created by imagination and innocence.

My grandfather was murdered, my grandmother soon died because of old age, and my dad was assassinated as well. With a blink of an eye, I lost the three people that I most cherished in the entire world. I didn't know what to do. I hid in the corners of my room, begging god to give those people back for days. But it seemed like I wasn't heard.

What was I suppose to do? No one had ever told me how to ever cope with this situation. I felt like a crushed a leaf that had been trampled on over and over again because it was just in the way of where everyone wanted to go. I felt out of place, and backwards. I felt sorry of _myself_. Hmph, what kind of a selfish person I was, makes me angry thinking of all of this again.

But there was still _hope_. There was still Itsuki, and I knew he'd know what to do. I couldn't trust anyone else, I didn't want to. All the advisers and everyone in the mansion might have been together in all of this, I couldn't give in to them. So to protect myself, I made Itsuki my pillar and my strength. I made him promise to meet me in the pond that I always went to when I was sorrow, so all my sadness would float away in that small body of water.

As we stood there, together, I finally felt at ease after a very long time. I knew right there that I had to marry him and everything was going to be okay. But of course, that was just a fragment of my imagination. Before I could begin talking about it – we were attacked right then. They were masked men, that imitated the shadows of the night so they could fool the human eye. They sure fooled us. It all happened in a short amount of time that I didn't know how to react.

I again started crying and cringing to Itsuki, confused as to what to do. Wishing he'd swoop right there like a magical being or some kind and make them go away so we can go back to the moment we were in. He did take out his sword and ran towards them, but he had yelled at me to go away.

"_Shiori, run! Don't let them catch you. They're after you, not me. I'll try to take them out but I have to make sure you're safe. I can't let them have you! Run, Shiori! Run!!_"

His voice echoed in my head as I stared at them, swinging their metal weapons in the air. I was still confused as to what to do. I couldn't go back to the village because they were blocking that entrance where we had come from. I decided I might as well run and look for help in the other side of the bridge. But, I had never been that deep in the forest before.

I ran, nonetheless. I ran as fast as I could and didn't look behind in fright, I desperately searched for a sign of any human presence. I couldn't seem to find anyone who I could scream out to, and I didn't want to just keep on yelling to save me otherwise the shadow men would find me and hurt me, _like they hurt my family_. I saw this old abandoned log that was hallow and long, I decided to curl up in their for some time and then look for help again. Tears were still trickling down my face, I was exhausted, out of breath – I didn't know when my eyes closed shut and I fell asleep.

My nap didn't last long, though. They found me. They crushed the log and attacked me, laughing heartlessly, and I lay helplessly in the ground spitting blood out of my mouth and clutching my stomach as a group of four-five men kicked me and shoved me. _They had gotten Itsuki. What happened to Itsuki, was he okay? Was he alive?_ Was all that was going through my mind at that time before I fainted and went unconscious. Why did they wake me up from sleep when they were going to knock me out unconscious again, seriously?

I couldn't really properly see where I was when I woke up. They took me someplace else, a place that was unfamiliar to me – it didn't have the same scent of nature like Hikari. My whole body was sore and it hurt to move any of my muscles. I heard a sound of water thrusting itself nearby and I figured _that was it_. I got up after making sure I could see again. I saw everyone asleep and my hands and mouth being wrapped with tightly tied ropes. It was night again I noticed when I went out, I was unconscious for an entire day.

I didn't what they were going to do to me, I was scared. They hadn't bothered tying my feet together because they'd know I wouldn't make it far with my current condition. I smiled as I noticed the waterfall right outside the little shack, I made my way there slowly in a hopping way. It hurt to walk. this was a cowardly act indeed but at that time – I didn't care. I wanted to be with my father and everyone.

I screamed one last time, gathering my strength, and threw myself at the rushing water. At that time, I had died.


	3. Festivity

Okay, so this is a very big chapter. o_o I hope you guys like it.

Oh, and what'd you guys do in Christmas? I just went to the cinema with my big brother to watch Avatar 3D on Christmas Eve, calling it awesome in an understatement. Also, since my school's off I've been watching anime (atleast 5-6 series) all day long, so I'm very happy! I have a fanfic idea for one of the minor characters of this anime that's airing right now -- it's called Fairy Tail, it's a pretty good watch for people who like comedy-action. Andand, I can't wait for the second season of Kuroshitsuji that'll start at the end of next month! Woohoo! Awesomness.

_Festivity_

"We are at the Akiyami mansion, my lady," the young man announced as he bowed infront of the gate, motioning for her to enter.

"Really? I wouldn't know," Shiori remarked sarcastically and the demon disguised as human smirked, trying not to chuckle. Of course she'd know they were at the mansion, it was _her_ home afterall. The blue-haired girl observed the mansion where she grew up in with a sad smile. Even after all this time, _it was still the same as she remembered as a kid_. The moonlight shined on the large house resting on a huge plot, as well as the shady trees in the wide garden that spread across acres and acres of land.

"– and I told you before, address me by my first name otherwise it'll look suspicious."

"Right, Shiori."

"Excuse me – who may you be? I can't let you in without permission, are you two invited?" a bald watchman said getting up from his chair that was placed right at the entrance of the house, besides the gate. The man came out of the front gate with a lantern hanging from his hand to get a better look at their faces.

Shiori blinked. The dark-haired man smiled and rested his hands on the watchman's shoulders. "Permission? – Invited?" the tall figure laughed, "what are you talking about, my good fellow? This is the first time I have seen an owner of the house asked to get permission of another to get inside their own home.. Quite strange if you ask me."

"Huh?" the old man blinked and stared at the young man head-to-toe, confused. Who were these people?

Shiori recognized the watchman, he had been working in the Akiyama estate for years. The watchman's father also worked for the Akiyama family, their family had been serving Shiori's for years. "It's me, Fujioka. Shiori, daughter of Minoru Akiyama."

".. Daughter of M-minoru Akiyama!? – Sh-sh-shiori Akiyama!?_ Young lady_, is it really you?!? I can't believe it, after all this time.. we all thought something had happened to you. We looked for you so much, but there was no trace of you. I – I'm so happy.. Welcome back, young lady! Welcome back! I'm going to tell everyone right away!" the old man cried out and knelled down on the ground and bowed in respect to welcome the former princess of the Akiyama clan.

Shiori beamed at the elderly man, "no need, I'd like to surprise them."

---

"Congratulations, Noburu, old pal! Your daughter, Wakana, is married now. She grew up to be such a fine lady. They grow up so fast, don't they? I remember only yesterday she broke her arm trying to climbing a cherry blossom tree."

"Ohohoh! They do, indeed, they do," the plum, short man laughed out-loud while rubbing his belly. He had tiny eyes, with a big nose, a wide mouth always stretching across his f ace, and a scruffy mustache. He was the bride's father and Shiori's father's brother. He was swelling with pride, his one and only child's life was now complete. He had no worries. The man ate and drank like crazy as he laughed and joked with his friends.

"Momoko, Wakana looks so beautiful! – and the groom is so dashing, isn't he the son of some really rich man? They make such a wonderful couple, your family is indeed blessed – I'm jealous!" one of the women cried in the crowd of many women who were all well-dressed and groomed.

"Ahh, wahahah! Thank you! We actually had no choice in the matter. You see, the boy was head over heels over Wakana ever since he saw her and kept asking for our daughter's hand in marriage. He just wouldn't take no for an answer, and we just simply couldn't refuse his persistence," a slim woman with her dark hair tied tightly into a bun replied as she laughed with her hand covering her mouth, deliberately showing off the gems around her fingers.

Shiori's aunt loved to compete with everyone over everything, she was actually quite a stingy woman, who loved boasting about herself to everyone – loved gossip and exaggerating things, and was known to be pretty stubborn.

"Oh my, is that a diamond ring!?"

"Why yes, it is.. Do you like it, Kotoko? I just had my husband order it for me from somewhere very far."

The whole Akiyama estate was decorated with beautiful lights and flowers. It was a wedding reception, afterall. The grand hall was filled with all sorts of rich, noble, and famous people from across the country, few from some some nearby villages. There was traditional Japanese music being played, food and beverages, and just lots of snobby people showing off their achievements and possessions. Both the bride and groom received presents from all the guests. It was a perfect evening.

Until the door burst open, revealing two people. One of them being familiar and the other being a complete stranger.

And everyone gasped.

The first person was a young woman with fair skin and steel-blue wavy hair that ended till her chest, a small twisted ball of her strands behind her left ear and many uneven strands on her forehead. She had mud-colored eyes and small facial features and wore a dark-colored kimono, she looked like someone out of a gothic-renaissance painting.

The other person was a beautiful man with skin as white as snow and dark hair that fell till his chin. He had wine-colored eyes, arched eyebrows, a thin nose and lips that were curved into a mischievous smirk. The man had black nails and wore a gray-colored Kimono to compliment the woman.

Everyone present in the grand hall paused what they were doing and turned to stare at the pair that stood out the most, it immediately became really quiet and all the guests gathered infront of Shiori and the man beside her.

Shiori cocked her head to the side as she was greeted with tons of people, wondering what they were doing in her house and why was the mansion decorated so lavishly. "_Hotaru_, is this a party for us? If so, how did they know we were coming? I thought we were going to give everyone a surprise," the young woman said out-loud, forcing her tone to sound sweet and innocent.

Hotaru smiled, "I don't think this celebration is for your return, Shiori."

Immediately, the crowd of men and women started whispering to one and another.

"It _is_ Shiori! The daughter of the previous Akiyama leader, so she's alive!"

"Oh my God, she really is alive!"

"I didn't ever think she would come back.. Wow! What a marvelous day."

"She looks so beautiful, oh my gosh. Who's that guy with her, though?"

"She looks just like her mother, poor thing. She's practically alone now."

Momoko and Noburu, Shiori's aunt and uncle rushed past the murmuring crowd to see what the racket was about. They were too busy greeting the new arrived guests to see what the commotion was about. "Hey, what's going on here? Let us through, move!" Noburu said as he shoved the people infront of him aside. Momoko's gleam immediately disappeared and wondered what was it that was taking attention off of _them_, it was _their_ party afterall. Nonetheless, they were sure shocked to find their suppose-to-be-dead niece standing at the entrance with a handsome stranger.

Both the old couple's jaws dropped to the floor as if they'd seen a ghost, well, they kind of did see a ghost-like person, but whatever. Noburu, the ball-shaped man, clutched his chest. He was going to have a heart attack – he had started panting, he was sure of it. Momoko squeezed his shoulders to stop him from passing out, motioning him to get a grip. She was too shocked herself to take care of him.

Shiori forced a smile at her late father's brother and his wife. "Lovely to see you again, aunty and uncle."

Momoko ran towards Shiori and pulled her in an embrace. "Shiori! You're _alive_? You're really alive! I'm not dreaming, am I? I'm so happy.. me and your uncle can't believe it. You were gone for an year, we thought you were dead – w-we tried looking for you _everywhere_, Shiori. Where were you all this time? Why didn't you try to contact us?" by now the woman was sobbing, tears were rolling down her cheeks. Momoko looked back at her husband to see how he was doing, he was still in his paralyzed-like-zombie state. "I – I think your uncle still can't believe that you're alive, he's in a shock. I'm so very happy, and so is he!"

Shiori stared blankly in midair as the middle-aged woman squeezed the life out of her, "yes, I'm.. very happy, too," the blue-haired girl managed to cough out of her mouth and literally shoved the woman away from her. "What are you doing in my house, though?"

The woman blinked at Shiori for a couple of moments, forgetting to wipe her tears away, and laughed. "We moved here six months ago, Shiori. You know, to protect to Akiyama estate. We couldn't just leave in isolated and let it rot."

"Oh, how very thoughtful of you," Shiori answered in a bored tone. _When were they going to leave_?

"Shiori!?!" A young woman came running past the crowd. Shiori recognized her as her older cousin, Wakana. Wakana had light-brown hair up till her waist with matching eyes, she had a pointy beak-like nose like her mother's and was dressed in a beautiful pink kimono and lots of powder applied all over her skin – giving her skin a snowy-look.

"Oh my God, Shiori! – You're alive, thank god!" the young girl said embracing the blue-haired girl as hard as her mother did. Shiori coughed again – trying to breathe, Hotaru chuckled at the weird reunion. Wakana pulled Shiori away from her and looked at her from head-to-toe. "Hmm, you changed a lot! Oh, and you came back on _such a_ good day, this must be a really good sign for myself. Aren't you going to congratulate me?"

"Is that so?" Shiori arched her eyebrow, "what am I congratulating you for, actually?"

"Yes!" the girl grinned at her younger cousin, showing off white teeth. "Today's actually the celebration for my wedding, you know. My wedding was just yesterday."

"Oh, is that so? Congratulations, Wakana," bored. _When are they going to leave already_!?

"Don't call me that! Why does everyone call me that!? I keep telling everyone to call me Kana, okay! Ka-na! Wakana is very old-fashioned and weird sounding."

"..."

"Anyways, do you want to know who my husband is? Do you, do you?? – Of course, you do! Any guesses? It's _Itsuki Kawaguchi_! Remember, your father's friend's son!"

_What_? No, that can't be right. What was going on? It was then that Shiori spotted a bronze-haired man in the crowd, standing right infront of everyone. The man looked horrified, completely frozen in his place. So he was alive all this time? Well, that was a good thing. But, how could he marry her – it didn't make sense. Wait, why was she affected by this in the first place? She had no feelings for him anymore. That was the old Shiori. The Shiori that _died_.

"Get out.." Shiori whispered to herself.

"What?" Wakana asked wrinkling her nose, not being able to hear her properly.

"I said GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! Everyone right now, OUT. Now! – Even _you_, uncle and aunty, out. _Now_!"

All the guests were appalled by this announcement and started muttering things under their breath. Everyone was just freaked out by all of this family drama going on. Everyone started making their way out of the mansion, grunting and not even bidding farewell.

"What are you saying, dear? We live here, all of our stuff is here now – we can all live together," the aunt said with a worried tone, running up to Wakana and clutching a shocked Wakana's arm.

"You can't do that! It's _my_ wedding reception!"

"Thank you for protecting the Akiyama estate while I wasn't present all of you, but now I am. So get lost, the party's over. I can pretty much take care of things here myself."

"Shiori, you can't do this to us! We're your family! What has gotten into you!?" the uncle finally snapped out of his weird hypnotized-like state, now all red and shaking his fist at his young niece. Momoko ran and held her husband to calm him down. "Dear, don't shout and create a scene, please."

"I advise you to leave right now, sir – " Hotaru calmly said as he came infront of Shiori and motioned for them to get with a polite smile.

" – and just who are you to talk in between all of us!?" The uncle snapped.

"Oh, sorry for not introducing myself – how disrespectful of me. I'm Hotaru Kurosawa, Shiori's husband. And I kindly request you all to leave now."


	4. Lost

Okay, so, for those who're so still confused: Sebastian equals Hotaru.

I wanted to talk about something before going on -- I was actually a bit worried earlier because I wasn't getting as many as reviews as I'd like for this fanfic. Because you know, reviews -- even if they're one-liners, they help encourage the authors to write because they get a sense of warmth and encouragement from them. Or something. o_o So anyways, I was looking at random author profiles in this site and there was this one person going, 'give me x amount of reviews and then you'll see the next chapter' -- which was okay, because it's every author's right to want reviews from their work. What wasn't okay was that the person was so obsessed with reviews that even when they got the right amount of reviews, it just wasn't enough? That person wanted more and is now saying they're quitting this site once the fanfic is finished because they're fed up of 'this', which is very silly. You write because you love to write, not because you get reviews -- if I understood that long time ago, I would've had a million fanfics by now. :P

So yeah, I admit, I actually continuously check my e-mail again and again to see review notifications, I can't help it. I jumped in my seat and told all my friends when I got the give alerts and one favorite notifications, and the few times I've got a review. I'd like to say thank you all, and to please review if you have the time -- if you don't review, well, I definitely will continue writing. Because I love to write, and that has nothing to do with it. :D

_Lost_

"What am I going to do? _What am I going to do_? Oh no, this is terrible!" Shiori pouted, tears stinging her eyes. She was sitting, her knees bent, leaning towards the surface and staring down at her now mud covered possession.

_I'm going to be in so much trouble_. Wasn't there some kind of stick around so she could reel the thing back from the muck? Oh, this was such a disaster. What was she going to? The nineteen year old panicked.

"Well now, what's going on here?" Shiori flinched as she heard a masculine voice booming from nowhere. The blue-haired girl turned to the voice to see a young man, who just had a deep voice. The stranger was sitting right beside her and it seemed like he had already followed her gaze to the object lying on the puddle of brown, the source of the problem. The man cocked his head in confusion.

"I dropped Michi in the mud," Shiori explained herself, her lower lip quivering as if she'd burst crying out loud any moment.

The man nodded understandingly, "I see, why not get it then?"

"Well, I would, but it's just, um – I kind of look nice today.. My father's friend is coming over so my dad told me to dress nicely, and I did. I was just going out for a walk with Michi and I guess I wasn't paying attention and Michi slipped out of my hands.." Shiori murmured, "if my clothes get dirty, my grandmother is going to get mad at me. She helped me dress up for today, you know!" It was true, the girl looked more radiant than she normally did.

Shiori had pulled her thick blue hair into a traditional Japanese-styled bun with a beautiful hair-pin to hold it up. The hair-pin was a long chop-stick like thing with a firefly hanging from its end, the lightening bug was made out of a rare stone. Other than her hair, the young woman wore a colorful kimono with a bright flower print. Her lips were painted red, and she was forced to apply blush on her cheeks. She didn't quite understand why _she_ had to dress up for her _father_'s friend. But she had no choice in the matter.

For some time the man remained silent, staring at Shiori with a lot of concentration like he was calculating something in his head – dumbfounded. For a while, an awkward silence enveloped them. But then he, himself, tore the envelope of awkwardness by bursting out laughing, making Shiori redden. She felt so stupid, maybe she didn't really look nice at all and ended up sounding like she was a self-obsessed brat. _How stupid of me! So embarrassing!_

The man quietened and rested his hand on his chin and pretended to ponder a solution for this oh-so difficult problem. "Hmm, I agree, this is quite a predicament," Shiori frowned and the man smirked, trying not to laugh. _Was this girl for real_?

"I have an idea!" The stranger said out loud, pointing up at the sky as if he'd been struck by lightening.

Shiori blinked, "_really_? What? What did you think of?"

"I can get your Michi for you. That would be alright with you, right?" The man grinned. It was then that Shiori truly saw him. The girl couldn't help widening her eyes even though she knew she was doing it, even though he might laugh at her again and she'd look stupid. – she couldn't. His smile, even though she wasn't able to touch it, felt so warm just like the sun. He had ruffled hair that was a strange color – a mixture between a deep brown and a bright, sunny yellow. It was right then when she had noticed them for the first time – his eyes. His eyes were hazel, a mixture between a light brown and the sunny yellow from his hair. His eyes sparkled brightly whenever he smiled.

_Just like the fireflies_.

Shiori snapped back to reality.

".. Would you really!? Thank you so much, mud man!"

The man paused and arched an eyebrow. "Mud man?.." he muttered to himself and started laughing out-loud again. Shiori watched him chuckling and this time joined in. The mud man shook his head.

The boy did as he said and grabbed the troubled girl's item from the mud and handed it over to her. Shiori bowed quickly, thanking him for his kindness, and ran towards a nearby well. The girl pulled up a bucket of water from the well and washed away the dirt that was hugging her adored possession. Once clean, the mud man could now clearly tell what it was. Michi was a brown-black colored firefly rag doll.

The mud man smiled, _she really likes fireflies_.

"So, that's Michi? Nice to meet you, Michi," the man said as he approached the girl from behind. The mud man watched her as she rushed to clean her doll and apologized to it again and again, like a mother taking care of her child. It was an amusing sight, but it showed how compassionate this person was. The girl was now raising the firefly towards the sun as if the burning start would obey her thoughts and dry the rag doll immediately with its warmth.

The girl turned around, laughing. The mud man felt as if his knees froze as soon as he saw her angelic face, lighting up with ecstasy, it was just so captivating. "Yes, it is! Michi says hi back. Thank you very much, mud man. My grandmother made this for me, she would be really upset if I lost it.. I would be very upset. Thank you so, so – oh my God! I forgot!" Shiori's eyes widened.

The mud man blinked, "what?"

"My father's friend! He's probably already arrived by now. Father might get worried, I have to go right away – I'm sorry! Thank you very much again! I won't forget your kindness!" the young girl yelled, slapped herself a few times, and ran away clutching the firefly close to her chest.

"Wait, uh –" the mud man called out but she had already disappeared from his sight, leaving dust in the air.

"What's your name?..." the man asked himself, completing what he wanted to ask her. The boy looked down at his hands and sighed, they were covered in mud from earlier.

_What do I do about this_?

---

"Shiori! Come inside and meet my old friend, Keitaro," Shiori's father called out laughing as he sat in a low-leveled room with his friend, Shiori's grandparents, and a couple of other people that came to socialize at their house. Everyone's legs were crossed as they sat on the wooden floor, a tiny table was placed in the middle of the room and on top of the table was a kettle and some empty teacups.

"Yes, father," Shiori stepped inside the room obediently, entering from the paper-cane doors. She smiled as she saw everyone gathered in the room, all eyes on her. She bowed in a greeting and wished them a good evening, and they all greeted her back. All of the guests started talking and laughing, and complimenting her beauty.

She saw a middle-aged man sitting across her father, assuming that it was his father's friend since his face was unfamiliar, another man sat behind her father's friend but she couldn't really see him. "Nice to meet you, unc – " the blue-haired girl stopped midway in her bow. She straightened herself again, and everyone gasped at her strange behavior.

Shiori's grandmother scowled and spanked her from behind, "What are you doing, Shiori!? Bow properly – don't be disrespectful to our guest!"

"No, it's quite oka – "

"Mudman.." Shiori said outloud. It was him, the mudman sitting behind her father's friend – it was no mistake, those eyes and that hair. It was definitely the same guy she saw earlier. What was _he_ doing here? Shiori stood still and cocked her head to stare at the man who was gawking back at her.

"Nice to meet you, miss Shiori," the mud man said formally, a smirk appearing on his face. Everyone in the room started staring back and forth at both people in confusion, not understanding what was going on.

Shiori's father laughed. "Mudman? – Do you already know this young man, Shiori? He's Keitaro's son, Itsuki! Itsuki Kawaguchi."

Shiori kept staring at him in a zombie-like state.

_Was he the reason she was dressed up like this_?

---

"Shiori?" Hotaru called her in a voice that didn't really sound concerning but authoritative. They couldn't waste anymore time, they were at the graveyard for more than two hours now. The house was filled with servants and helpers that were hired by Shiori's aunt and uncle's preference. It wasn't safe to leave the mansion unattended for too long, if not at all.

Shiori brushed off her tears quickly – make sure he didn't see her crying – as she stood up, looking down her father's grave. Her father and grandparents' graves were placed together, right where the sun would green them every morning. Shiori didn't want them to stay too hot though, so she had plotted their graves right under an old, giant cherry blossom tree that would provide them shade. This way, they could be warm _and_ protected forever.

Shiori still remembered how she had ordered her servants to dig up graves for these people she cherished so much, one by one. She hadn't visited the gravesite for an entire year, because of her disappearance. Oh, how much she desired to ever since that 'incident'.

The blue-haired girl held her hands together and prayed for their safety, for her safety. For strength, luck, and intelligence – for vengeance.

"Let's go, it's time to prepare for our plan – too much time has been wasted," Shiori turned away from the graves after a long-lasting final look and started walking beside the demon as they both exited the graveyard.

"Right away," Hotaru assured her.


	5. Circus

Warning: This is a _very_ chaotic chapter. It took me three - four hours to write this, I don't know why -- but it did.

So, Yuki Uzumaki thought I wasn't giving you guys much Sebastian. And you know what, she was right. I wanted to build Shiori's character as strong as Sebastian's was since she was sharing the lime light with him, but I guess I completely forgot about him in the process. This chapter is completely action-filled and has a lot of Sebastian/Hotaru, and some new characters. I promise to write more Hotaru from now on, and plus, I found out he's a lot of fun to write! o_o This chapter drove me crazy so I'm sorry if it isn't up to your expectations.

_Circus_

Hotaru arched an eyebrow quizzically, sneering, trying not to laugh at the sight infront of him. As hilarious he thought the situation was, the demon knew it would make matters worse to laugh at their faces. Well, actually, he kind of _did_ always want the situations to go from bad to worse, what's some action without excitement? Plus, the human emotions such as anxiety, fear, and anger brought in the midst of these antics – they were _so_ very arousing. The level of pleasure Hotaru received from them were no words in the human dictionary to describe it.

Not like demons had their own dictionary full of fancy words, or something.

A tiny, round man stood infront of Hotaru, his face was red in anger. Hotaru could swear he could see the steam coming out of the guy's ears, the redness on his face resembling the natural red-colored giant nose of his. The man was breathing so very carefully, as if his breaths were limited – trying to keep himself calm under all of this pressure, but he failed and gave into thinking of all these various disturbing mental images of how Hotaru might be disposed of.

Unknown to the dwarf-like person, Hotaru was pretty much enjoying the malice slowly evaporating from his tiny body and seeping into the demon's. Dark human emotions such as anger, greed, lust, and jealousy was what Hotaru fed on, he craved them as much as he craved human souls, maybe even more. These satanic thoughts and feelings made Hotaru more powerful as a demon.

Blue eyes like the summer sky, disheveled golden hair, a suit with a bow-tie and a matching hat – the small circus leader was definitely a foreigner. He even smelled differently to Hotaru.

The foreigner played with his long mustache that had large swirls at the end and chuckled. "I warned you before boy, didn't I? You can't have them, the twins are an important part of my circus – of my business," the main explained raising his arms, showing off all the circus people that worked under him. They were all standing behind him, snickering and gazing at Hotaru and his friends as if they were some kind of delicious meal.

The circus guy wasn't the only one with friends of his own, Hotaru too brought companions. One of them was a young man called Arashi, his name meant storm – which pretty much went along with his personality pretty well. Arashi had maroon hair that reached his elbows. Some of his strands were tied in a small ponytail, resting on his freely laid ones. He wore his kimono like Shinto priests did, a white top and electric blue bottom. Arashi glared at all the circus people with the same intensity as they were, challenging them silently.

The other man who was much older than the previous guy mentioned stood behind Hotaru and was looking down at the floor was called Yasu. He had midnight green-colored hair that was mostly hidden under his cloak along with his eyes. The black cloak was pretty much what draped his entire body. He chose to remain calm and quite most of the time, and said only when he felt like he was needed to. Which was rarely.

These two were Hotaru's friends for now, someone who he could trust. _Someone who Shiori could trust_.

"The twins have been bounded to my circus by a _contract_ their mother signed when they were little and came to me homeless, filthy, and hungry. They contract says for them to perform here for there entire lifetime, and if anyone tries to break this contract, it's illegal – we definitely will take action, boy," the old man continued to roll his mustache around his finger.

Hotaru laughed out loud, unable to sustain it. Everyone around him tensed, wondering what was it that this dark man found funny. "I am afraid you will have to action then, sir. I have no intention of leaving this place until I get Sho and Cho."

Humans and contracts, how amusing the two were. A contract was a piece of paper that decided a human's worth, it decided their entire life – a path that, that a human would take if they agreed to it. What were humans without being bounded to a contract or something they felt was important, anyway? Without being bounded to anything – their families, their passion, their jobs, their responsibilities, they would just be bodies of flesh that drifted aimlessly in the world, waiting to rot once sufficient amount of time has passed. There would be no love, no pain, no anger, no anxiety, no lust, no jealousy, _nothing he could feast on_.

How foolish these humans were, but it was their fate that decided a demon's.

The circus leader's fists tightened. "What are you idiots looking at? Get them!"

A tanned man first appeared infront of them, he was bald except for the little area in the center of his head which had hair and it continued to extend past his shoulders, the skinny man tied his hair into a braid and wore bizarre, exotic-looking clothes. He was armed with two torched sticks. Hotaru pondered what this lanky man could do to hurt them.

It shocked the two standing behind Hotaru when the tanned man placed the burning portions of the sticks one-by-one in his mouth, his cheeks puffing up and eyes dilating, with a lot of concentration he managed to swallow the flames completely. _A_ _fire breather_, Hotaru identified the man's talent.

"Leave it to me, guys!" Arashi ran towards the fire breather who was now thrusting flames out of his mouth at them. The circus was left to stare in awe as the chestnut-haired boy twirled in midair as if he was doing ballet and with his inner spiritual energy cast a strong gust of wind sending the fire breather flying across the isolated, humongous yellow-orange-red tent they were all currently in. The fire breather quickly recovered from the assault and continued to engage in a battle with Arashi, separately in another corner of the tent.

The circus man groaned, ready to rip his own hair as he saw one of his own men being flung across like a fly infront of one. But the battle had just begum. "What are the rest of you doing!? Everyone go out there at once! Show them who they're messing with!" with that shouted at, all of the circus people slowly made their way towards the two remaining people. Hotaru sighed. Humans, why did they always have to try complicate things? Wasn't the world complicated enough? Oh well, he could feel the malice oozing out of their bodies.

_Delicious_.

---

Next up was an animal tamer, Hotaru could just smell the scent of various animals dispersing from him. It was a middle-aged man who had a beard, wore western clothes, carried a long whip, and judging from his facial features and smell – he, too, looked like he was a foreigner. The old man called out Hotaru in the center of the circus, as if they were knights were dueling in the grand city of Troy. Nonetheless, Hotaru abided by his request and entered the circular platform.

The tamer cackled and pulled a lever, an over-sized steel cage was brought down by iron chains that clung it from all the sides. Lions were trapped inside of it, they were roaring and pouncing on each other, waiting to get out. Hotaru smirked, _was this really the best this man could do_? _Idiot. _

The demon with bloodshot eyes walked to the lions as they were released, the big cats were growling loudly, making their way to Hotaru. The lions were ready to pounce on anyone they saw just because they were so irritated from being so hungry and enclosed in that cage together all the time. The animal tamer couldn't help but smug at the scene infront of him, rubbing his hands together. Oh, this was so exciting. That young lad had been stupid to come and start a fight with them.

Just as the lions were almost ready to leap at Hotaru together, they all suddenly paused infront of him. There was a strange enticing glint in the man's red eyes that they liked, the lions blinked, some of them tilted their heads to the side and now slowly made their way to their opponent. Pawing, licking, and nudging him with their heads instead of trying to rip his guts out. Hotaru laughed and played with them all, rubbing them behind their ears and complimenting their fur. The lions were now lying on the floor wanting to have their belly scratched.

The animal tamer's eyebrows twitched psychotically. What the _hell_ was going on? What happened? Why were they showing affection to his enemy? What in the world was wrong with them? What did that man do to his lions? – The old man ran towards where they were and decided to whip them all. "What are ya doin', ya numbskulls!? Attack, dammit! I told ya to attack that person! Not make love to 'im! Stupid animals!"

Hotaru shook his head, _he really shouldn't have done that_. The lions snapped their heads back to their owner, they didn't look pleased at all. The cats started approaching him steadily with eyes that lusted for blood like a vampire's would – or an angry _demon's would_.

You could probably guess how that ended. Hotaru flashed a satisfied smile to himself. Felines were such nice creatures. They were so understanding and didn't complain, unlike humans. He might as well have a talk with Shiori to get cat for a pet. This battle was a good meal for Hotaru, he could feel himself flowing with energy.

---

Meanwhile, the stereotypical 'strong guy' of the circus approached Hotaru's second ally, Yasu. The strong guy was buff, obviously. His body was painted and he had piercings everywhere, and he showed off his muscles by wearing revealing clothes. Like everyone strong guy, this strong guy was also not the brightest pickle in the bunch. Or something.

The cloaked man didn't falter from his position and continued to look down at the floor, unintentionally ignoring the bigger man's presence. The really tall man made a face at the strange man. "Hey.. what is wrong with you? Why aren't you moving or saying anything? You okay? – hey, I'm talking to you! _Answer me_! I said – " the bigger man ran up to the still one to tackle him, but apparently he had missed him.

"Huh? What the! – " the man looked around and saw the same cloaked man, still looking down at the floor in his zombie-like state. "You're a fast one, aren't you? I'll show you!" the man threw piles of chairs at the man but they all missed the cloaked figure each time – the strong guy however, did manage to knock down one of the pillars of the tent that made it stand. The next thing the circus person noticed was his vision totally blackened out. Yasu took this as an opportunity and sneaked on him, snickering, he decided to inflict pain on him now.

---

Once the animal tamer was dealt with, a hooper – a little girl decided to face the demon. The girl used circular metal blades and rotated them around her body by the rhythm of her hips. Normally, Hotaru didn't really like fighting against little girls but what needed to be done, _had_ to be done. The girl used her angelic appearance to deceive people as she sliced them to pieces. She was no match for Hotaru's speed though, and was easily defeated.

Arashi was now done with the first guy and was now heading to attack another. He saw two slits, people that were standing on long sticks pretending as if they were their legs. Arashi shook his head and kicked their sticks, making them fall immediately. "I have no time for you, two."

There were jugglers who were juggling knives and throwing them towards the three, but Arashi and Yasu took care of them.

The whole circus was growing insane by now, especially the circus leader – he wasn't ready to admit defeat. The dwarf-like person used a human cannonball to try and knock down the pillars of the tent so him and his crew would escape safely. Judging from the all the battles that took place that he watched, these men were _strong_. Especially that black-haired one, he didn't seem _human_. They had to run for their lives, and they had to do it quick.

---

Hotaru checked all of the cabins that belonged to the circus people. After going through five-seven of them, he had finally came across what he was searching for. Two twin girls were lying on the floor strapped together, their mouths, hands, and legs tightly knotted. They seemed like they were physically abused too, they were bruises and blood splattered everywhere; their clothes were torn too. Both of them were unconcious.

Hotaru smiled, _just like when he found her_.


	6. Helpers

I'm sorry! I just had to add in the wacky servants like in the anime. :P

_Helpers_

Hotaru slid open the paper crane door and shut it behind him as he entered his bedroom, _their bedroom_. As expected, no matter how late at night it was, as long as Hotaru himself wasn't there Shiori wouldn't fall asleep. They slept in the same room, together in one futon because they didn't want anyone to know _anything _about them. They were married afterall, even if it was a contract marriage. Shiori kept a pillow between them whenever they slept, there would be no physical contact at all. It was one of the rules in their contract.

Sometimes Hotaru wished there would be no such rule.

Shiori quickly straightened up and sat up on the fotun, searching Hotaru's face and body for any signs of injury or bruises. "Where were you? You were gone for five hours – you didn't tell me where you were heading," the blue-haired girl blinked at the demon, waiting for his reaction.

Even if she clamed that the old, innocent Shiori had died long ago, there were still some fragments of the old Shiori left in her. Hotaru smiled. "Forgive me for making you worry, Shiori. I had to do something important."

"Making _me_ worry? Please, don't make me laugh. I was just uncomfortable with that if you were away someone would take the chance to ambush me, or something. Stop trying to flatter yourself – I'm only following our contract," Shiori made a face at the dark-haired man and quickly sunk back in the flattened bed, facing away from Hotaru so her slightly reddened face would be hidden from him eyes. Completely forgetting about asking what the important was because she was embarassed.

Hotaru laughed and made his way to the futon he shared with the girl. "Of course, sorry for being assumptions."

He saw right through her.

The truth was she _did_ worry for him, he was the only thing she had left – if he disappeared now then that would be mean everything was over for her, for her purpose. Throughout the time she had spent with him she had always felt herself getting drawn into him. Like a dark spell cast over her, she always felt like some force inside of her was trying to pull her involuntarily closer to him and she just couldn't resist it no matter how she did. Lust was sprouting inside of her and slowly taking over from inside as days went by, her desires craving for his touch increasing as they did.

_No, stop it. _He was a demon, that's how he lured humans in, didn't he? It was known for demons to seduce humans and impregnate women for their own pleasure. She had to control herself no matter how hard it was. She wasn't going to let him have his way with her. She had always made it clear – their marriage was nothing than a contract between a human and a demon.

"Have pleasant dreams, Shiori."

Shiori didn't say anything and shut her eyes closed.

---

"So, the reason you were absent for five hours yesterday was because you fired all the people working in this household, except for Fujioka, of course, and you went to look for new recruitment? For people who _we_ could trust?" Shiori archd her eyebrow, repeating every word that her husband has said to her.

"Yes," the demon answered with a smile.

The young woman stood infront of all the new faces with her arms crossed and narrowed gaze, everyone had lined up neatly in a small line to greet their new mistress. It felt good to have such authority, she never dealt with any of the people in her household before. Back then, it ws her father's job to boss people and to give them orders.

The first in line was Fujioka, the old watchman that was with them for so many years – Shiori trusted him with her life, and Hotaru knew that. There was no way she would ever get rid of him, Hotaru didn't have a problem with the old man staying back either. Next in line was a young man named Arashi who always carried a scowl on his face – he was assigned to be the gardener.

Besides the new gardener was a man in a bizarre, cloaked outfit named Yasu – he was to be the chef. Oh god, that made Shiori nervous. How can she trust him to make their meals if they can't even see his face? What if someone else sneaked in the mansion wearing his clothes and poisoned the food when no one was looking or something.

Lastly, were two young girls, younger than Shiori – the twins, Sho and Cho, who were going to be the only maids of this huge mansion from now on. _That_ was going to be difficult. Both of them had vibrant ginger-colored hair and matching light brown eyes. One of the twins' hair was long, it reached her waist and was tied in two long loose pigtails – she was known as Sho. The other twin's face was slightly tubby and her hair reached up till her chin. She was called Cho.

Cho looked frightened, like a little lost puppy, and was clinging on to her older sister's arm. _They were cute_, Shiori thought briefly.

Shiori sighed. _They were quite a bunch, weren't they_? The noblewoman decided to pass through all of them, one-by-one, and repeat what she was told about them. "So, you said, you went to the mountainous area in the northern region of Japan and helped Arashi escape the holy temple, because he didn't want to continue his high-priest training. You guys ran in with priests from the temple who wouldn't allow Arashi to leave and tried to attempted to imprison you both."

The brick-haired person grunted and folded his arms as his mistress pointed him out and walked past him.

"After that, you went to a theater, far away in the east, where they performed magic and dramas. You retrieved Yasu, the illusionist, because he was bored of his life and no one cared if he stayed or left?" the cloaked man didn't react and stood still like a machine like he always did, staring down at the floor.

Shiori moved on to the twins. "But you didn't stop there, you also went to a _circus_, fought with the people there because the twins wanted to escape that place? There was bloodshed. Why was there a big fight over you two, anyway?" Shiori turned to the two girls who were no older than fifteen - sixteen year olds.

"Because, um, we can do acrobatics, gymnastics, aerial acts, and um, contortion," Cho murmured, poking her head from behind her older sister's shoulder.

"I see, so your talent was so important to them that they didn't want you two to leave," Shiori beamed at them and turned back to Hotaru who was standing behind her the entire time with an amused look in his rose-colored eyes. "And you did all of this in five hours? Because we needed helpers around the house? – How in the world did you manage to do that? You never cease to amaze me," Shiori shook her head.

Hotaru nodded. "I am your husband afterall, am I not? We will have no trouble leaving the house whenever we want to now. I assure you, they have my trust. They can keep the Akiyama estate safe when we are not present."

Just then a short, plum woman entered the dining room where everyone was gathered. She had dark curly hair that looked like a big pile of yarn on her round head. The woman had eyes that seemed like they were always closed, two small slits. There were crumbs and food particles all over her mouth. She also had painted lips and powdered skin – so much so that kids would actually think of her as the snow demon, only the snow demon was suppose to be extraordinarily beautiful.

She was definitely extraordinary, but..

The woman seemed to be eating something. Shiori narrowed her eyes, that woman was eating their food.

Shiori turned to Hotaru. "Who is this?"

Hotaru cleared his throat, not sure how to explain the woman the scenario. "That is Sho and Cho's mother."

Shiori immediately turned to the twins and they nodded in union, confirming what the demon had said. Shiori blinked. Her daughters didn't look anything like her, _thank god for that_.

"Okay, what is she doing here?" Shiori asked again, rephrasing her first question.

Hotaru glanced at the woman who seemed to be munching on something and waving at Shiori at the same time."I tried to ask her to leave, she wouldn't.. she says the twins only stay if she does."

Shiori arched an eyebrow and walked over to the waving woman. "Then she has to work to live here, _right_? What's your name, miss?"

The woman grinned, displaying all the food that was stuck between her teeth. "Satomi."

Shiori tried to remain calm. "How – Do you have any skills or strengths? Anything you're good at?"

"My beauty," the middle-aged woman answered patting her afro and then tried making a sorrowful face to emotionally blackmail the girl. "Besides that, I gave you my twins to work in this house! Aren't you people satisfied with that! – oh my God, such greedy people. You're doing this because you're rich, right? I'm just a poor woman who needs shelter, makeup, nice clothes, and lots of food. Do you want to kick me out? Do you? How do you think I, a mother, would feel after being separated from her children? "

Shiori blinked. "Okay, I – "

" – Oh, I know! I'm really good at talking. I volunteer myself to be the head-adviser of these young people – I couldn't really care less of that old man standing over there. Don't worry, miss, I'll whip them into shape," the woman winked at Shiori and the young girl could feel something crawling down her spine. She couldn't get angry with her, if she did the twins would be taken away. Hotaru worked hard to get them here.

"Fine, whatever. Just stop talking."

Fujioka made a disgusted face at the woman for insulting him. Now satisfied, the woman started dancing her way to her daughters to rejoice in getting a job with them in the same workplace, but slipped in the process and fell on the hard floor.

The turquoise-haired girl burst out laughing at the sight, startling everyone who was in the room. Especially Hotaru, _this was the first time he had actually saw her laugh_. After all this time, she finally laughed. She looked like a little child when she laughed, innocent and devious at the same time. Hotaru smirked.

The leader of the Akiyama clan quickly clasped her mouth with both her hands to compose herself. It was then that everyone else except for Satomi howled with laughter. The tiny woman screamed in agony, kicking her stubby legs up in the air. Yasu, Arashi, and Fujioka (who had to be forced) all went to rescue her and pull her up since she was too heavy for just one person. The twins sighed.

"H-how embarrassing, Sho!"

"I know, Cho."

"I'm sorry – I, I – didn't mean to – ahem, well, anyway," the girl cleared her throat and turned to the non-human before exiting the room. "You did a very good job, Hotaru. I'm pleased. Doing all of this.. I'm really surprised. Maybe you should try being a butler someday, you'll do just fine," Shiori chuckled. Hotaru was content that he had made Shiori happy. The look in her eyes now was precious to him.

Hotaru smiled, "maybe I will."

---


	7. Visit

at annon: Thank you for your review! And yeah, it is hard to refer to Sebastian as Hotaru, isn't? And yes, Hotaru looks exactly like Sebastian from the anime because it's the same person -- only difference is the outfit. :P

Thank you guys for the review! My friend, Noodles, read this fanfic and was inspired to draw Shiori and Sebastian. She drew it and showed it to me, and oh my god, she did a fantastic job. I imagined Shiori the same way she drew her. I tried copy/pasting the link here but it won't show. Do any of you know what I need to do to show you guys the drawing?

_Visit_

Today, Wakana had come to visit.

"Shiori, do you like this kimono? Itsuki's mother gifted me this. Isn't pretty!?" Wakana twirled around, displaying her midnight blue-colored kimono with vibrant colorful swirly pattern running across it. Her extremely long rust-colored hair swayed as she turned, Shiori always thought the woman had such beautiful hair – but she wasn't going to let her know she thought that. She might develop even a bigger ego.

As for the kimono, Shiori didn't like it. It wasn't the style she usually wore. Or maybe in the back of her mind she knew if things went normal back then she'd be the one getting the kimono by Itsuki's mother, not _her_. Shiori quickly brushed off the thought.

"I hate it." Shiori narrowed her eyes at her cousin. Wakana, in return stopped spinning and gazed down at her kimono with a frown, tilting her head ever so slightly. "Really? – you really _don't_ like it? I thought it looked very pretty.. " the long-haired girl felt her kimono's fabric for a couple of minutes. then quickly remembered she was in Shiori's room and turned her attention towards Shiori again with a forced grin.

"Oh, that's right! You probably got some nice kimono of your own from Hotaru's mother, right? Can I see them? How are your in-laws like? Are they nice?" the girl asked, skipping over to Shiori's closet.

"Hotaru doesn't have parents," Shiori grumbled. She wasn't going to tell her older cousin her husband was actually a demon who was bounded to her because of some contract to get revenge on the people who murdered her family.

Wakana instantly closed the closet's door and her mouth formed a small o, not really looking sympathetic but instead she looked like she was thinking deeply about something. "Oh.."

Shiori sighed. She really hated uninvited guests, they were so troublesome and annoying. When was she going to leave?

"You never got around to it, Shiori, how did you meet Hotaru?" Wakana asked, again attempting to try and finding out information of her cousin's mysterious and handsome husband. She was really curious how he was. He was so dashing and attractive, too good for her dumb little cousin.

Shiori's eyes widened. They hadn't thought of that. Why would they? She couldn't really discuss their fake romance with the demon. It was such a silly and strange topic that she would be too embarrassed to talk about it. But Shiori thought it was reasonable enough question for anyone who was nosy and curious.

Shiori felt like pushing her cousin off a cliff.

"Oh, I was lost in the woods.. and, um, he found me.. and, uh, I – we got married."

Wakana gasped. "He _married_ you just because he found you lost in the woods? Incredible!"

"Yes, it was love at first sight." Shiori answered in a bored tone as she looked outside her room's window. Hotaru was teaching Arashi how to trim the bushes in the garden and the twins were taking turns poking Yasu, who was laying down on the grass. Shiori let out a small smile for a millisecond.

"I've noticed you changed, Shiori." Wakana frowned as she noticed the blue-haired girl was not really interested in talking to her. Shiori blinked in reply. "Did something happen to you in your one year absence that changed you _so much_? Honestly speaking, my parents have been really worried for you too after the way you behaved in my wedding reception. You use to be so naive and gullible, and you always use to listen to whatever I said, and lie about your opinions on things to agree with me – "

" – Don't remind me, _Wakana_ – "

" – I told you to call me, Kana! See, you used to call me Kana before! What is wrong with you!?"

"I don't care if if you're Wakana or _Baka-_na or _Pakana_, get out my house. And don't just barge in to people's houses, ask for their permission first. Didn't aunty even taught you that?"

Wakana gasped. "How _dare_ you! – "

"Hello there! good afternoon, misses!" Satoshi entered the bedroom with a big smile pasted on her face.

Shiori narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing in my room? Who gave you the right to barge – "

" – _Oh my_! Is this lady your relative, Mistress?" the short woman asked running to Wakana and running her hand through the older girl's hair. "She's so pretty! I love your Kimino, miss."

Wakana laughed with a hand clasped over her mouth in a boastful manner, looking over at Shiori and pretending to be embarrassed. _Shiori must feel stupid now since her hired help complimented me and not her_, she thought.

Shiori smirked, her arms folded, and pointed at the woman's hands with her eyes. Wakana's face fell as she looked down to see the round woman feeling her kimono. The curly-haired person's hands were covered in some kind of curry, and she was leaving imprints of her fingers on her brand new kimono. Satoshi then looked up at Wakana staring at her with a horrified expression and grinned, displaying her disgusting unclean teeth. A whiff of her bad breath entered Wakana's nostrills.

Wakana screamed and pushed the woman away. The middle-aged woman tumbled on the floor and started kicking her feet up in midair, yelling in agony yet again and calling for help. Shiori chuckled at the sight. _So I guess she isn't that useless, afterall_.

Wakana was fuming, her whole face was red. Shiori thought her head was going to expand wider and wider and was on the verge of exploding any moment. "_Urgh_! Look what your servant did to my clothes! What am I going to tell Itsuki's mom!? Don't you have any authority over the people working in your household? Haven't you given them adequate lessons, you stupid girl!? _Urgh_, whatever – I'm leaving! I just came to tell you that since your back you're suppose to hold a party for all the villagers because of your 'grand' return. Since you're the leader of the Akiyama clan, currently."

With that, Wakana stomped away.

---

"Shiori, do you like this?"

Shiori's father sat a eight-year-old in his lap and held out a hairpin. They were sitting under the koyo tree, the tree that sprouted colorful leaves in the autumn. The little girl's eyes widened at the posession. The gem at the end interested her. "Yes, It is _so_ pretty! But what's that, father?" the little girl pointed at the weird figure carved out of a stone in the end of the hairpin.

The man laughed. "That's a firefly, your mother loved them. I'll show you them today, we'll go to the pond nearby here at night. They're very beautiful. This hairpin, Shiori, was intended for your mother. I was going to gift it to her on her Birthday. But I couldn't because your mother went to heaven the same year." Shiori's father patted her head, a sad smile formed on his face. The little Shiori cocked her head to the side with her mouth wide open, noticing a new expression on her father's face.

"This was _mother_'s?"

Shiori's father nodded. "I'm going to give this to you today, Shiori. I want you to wear it when you have blossomed into a young beautiful woman. Please take good care of this until then. Can I count on you to do that, Shiori?"

The little girl nodded head head enthusiastically. "Mmm!"


	8. Fireflies

Oh, so I found out we can't post links in chapters. ): I'm going to be posting HnH's pictures on my profile soon.

And omg, guys. Thank you so much for all the support everyone's giving me. ;--; I've reached halfway in the story with this chapter. I'm not saying the remaining chapters of the story will eight as well, because I like stretching things out sometimes to give some things time to grow. But plot-wise, we've reached the middle. Expect things to get a little.. more adventurous from here on. Enjoy this chapter, it's my favorite so far.

_Fireflies_

Shiori looked outside the window of her room and sighed. Her garden was full of people. All the trees, plants, and the giant fountain in the middle of it were glowing radiantly at night since they were decorated by paper lamps by everyone in the household the day earlier. The people looked like they were being dissolved into the everlasting glow, the sight infront of her was so beautiful. Since the Akiyama estate's garden was massive, Hotaru decided to hold the party in the two-third portion of the garden. It was enough to contain all the people in the village.

The people Hotaru hired as helpers were such hardworking and kind people, Shiori thought. Sure they bickered a lot with each other and were strange in many ways, but they were good people. Shiori smiled, _like Hotaru_. She grew fond of everyone of them already. She felt happy in their presence.

"Shiori?" Hotaru called out, bursting inside the room. He too was dressed up in a celadon-colored kimono. His ebony-colored hair was lying all over his face, he looked quite dashing.

"What is taking you so long? Everyone is waiti – " the demon paused as he laid his wine-colored eyes on his wife. The young girl was draped in a cream-colored kimono. Her hair was also pulled up in a traditional Japanese-styled bun with many strands displayed on her face, her bun was decorated by Japanese orchids; her favorite firefly hairpin accompanied her tonight. The girl's lips were painted and her cheeks looked like they were reddened artificially. She looked like a goddess of some kind.

Shiori didn't like wearing light colors because they looked too feminine and had higher chances of getting dirty, she preferred dark clothes that would blend in with the background and not attract so much attention. There was a time when she liked wearing vibrant-colored clothes, but she had already passed that phase.

The twins forced her to wear it on this occasion though, they said it would look nice since it was the night time and the party was outdoors. If she wore dark colors tonight they would go unnoticed, and since a lot of people came to see her, her appearance would be talked about the most. Shiori hated this. She disliked dressing up for so many people – it wasn't only that but she had to give a speech today, for her return. Ever since 'the incident' she had a hard time talking to new people and putting her trust in them, let alone talk infront of many strangers. This was too troublesome for her. Shiori felt her stomach turn upside down, anxiety and nervousness were taking over her. But she knew she had to do this, she was the leader of the Akiyama leader.

All the people out there wanted to see their leader.

Hotaru was left speechless for a few seconds, he stood there blinking. Shiori noticed this and scowled, her colored cheeks growing even a deeper shade of red. "Don't you dare make fun of me! – I didn't want to wear this. I was forced, okay? "

Hotaru nodded enthusiastically, snapping out of it and clearing his throat. "Ahem, yeah, of course.. "

"Everyone's waiting, right? Let's get this over with."

---

Everyone applauded at the village's most talked about couple as they made their way to the garden. Shiori and Hotaru were walking down the stairs that were suspended from the back entrance of the house. The lights were so much brighter when you were entering the garden, they almost blinded their view. The lights struck Shiori and reflected back from her kimono, doubling the intensity of her glow and radiance. Everyone gasped and murmured compliments about their leader's appearance to each other, all the people being excited and supportive of the woman.

Silence soon spread upon the crowd of people. The leader of their village was suppose to say a few words of greeting, devotion, and commitment to them, like all past leaders did. Hotaru smirked, he wondered what Shiori was going to say infront of the village, he knew very well she didn't like talking infront of people.

The blue-haired girl nervously stood on the last steps of the stairs, glancing down at the people who were standing at a distance from her platform. Hotaru stepped aside so that all eyes would be on her. Shiori couldn't really see anyone's face, their heads looked like blurs because of the lightening. _They look like fireflies at night_. Shiori smiled generously at these blurs, her eyes getting lost in the amidst of this crowd. She could feel her anxiousness fading, she didn't like talking infront of people but now she could imagine they were all fireflies and was talk to them. Shiori cleared her throat.

"I wish you all a good evening, and I thank everyone for coming here. You all look very beautiful tonight." Shiori's eyes were lit up with tears forming in them, Shiori was thinking of how proud her father would have been if he was here to witness this moment. The young woman paused to compose her tone before going on. "I don't think I did anything to deserve this position, this position was given to me because I was _born_ to be placed in the position because of my father. But, I promise to prove to everyone that I _do_ deserve to be here – and no matter how long I'm going to remain as your leader, when I leave I hope you all remember me in a small place in all of your hearts. Together, we'll continue to glow together. That is all."

Shiori shut her eyes for a few seconds to stop her tears from escaping her eyelids and then felt someone's arm clutching her shoulder tightly. It was Hotaru. Shiori opened her eyes to look at him with a forced smile on her face, telling him that she was okay. Everyone in the crowd the applauded and whistled at their leader's short, but to the point speech.

---

As the party went on all of the villagers greeted them, complimented them, and gave them presents for Shiori's return. There was food, music, and a magic act performed by Yasu. Everyone seemed to be having a nice time. The helpers of the household were running around the entire garden, they were quite busy attending to all the guests.

"_Urgh_, move out of the way, you brat! I have lots to do!" Arashi shoved aside the short-haired twin as they collided.

Cho fell on the ground and so did the towels she was clutching for the guests, the girl began wailing and kicking and punching the air. "Sho! Arashi's being mean to me again!!"

The longer-haired twin appeared from the gardener's behind and started pulling his crimson-colored hair, a scowl formed on her face and her eyes shot daggers at the man. "How many times have I told you to not mess with my sister, you idiot!? Do you want me to rip your hair off!?" The young man shrieked and absentmindedly waved his arms in the air to try and get a hold of the older twin. Yasu stood there and decided to point and laugh at the situation infront of him. He was still cloaked.

Shiori's uncle, aunt, and Wakana were also in the party. They also greeted her and presented them a gift. They were mingling around with people in the party, they were mostly keeping to themselves instead of causing a ruckus because they didn't want anyone to find out them being kicked out of the Akiyama estate, _twice_.

Shiori decided to take a walk in the garden. She wanted to be away from all the talking and smiling at random people, her cheeks were starting to hurt. Hotaru was doing a fine job and continued to do so as she signaled her leave. She bowed and waved at people who greeted her in the party as she strolled around to take a look at everything. The helpers really did a fine job.

The leader of the village was then unexpectedly approached by five little children. They all had picked flowers from the garden, escaping Arashi's wrath, and decided to give it to her. "You're very pretty, miss leader! I want to be just like you when I grow up!" one of the little girls in the group said and Shiori laughed at the compliment.

She thanked them by hugging all the kids individually. "Thank you very much, I'm very flattered!" all the kids nodded shyly and ran away. Shiori smiled at the group of little people and got up, noticing a figure infront of her. Shiori's smile vanished.

_Itsuki_.

The familiar man was draped in a dark kimono. He was staring right at her and making his way towards her. Oh no, what was she going to do? Should she pretend she didn't notice him coming towards her and run away? – no, that wasn't like her at all. That was the old Shiori, the new Shiori wasn't like that at all. Why would she be running, anyway? It wasn't like _she_ did anything terrible. Sure, she married a demon and formed a contract with him – but did he not know her situation? _He_ married her _cousin_. _He_ betrayed _her_. Shiori narrowed her mud-colored eyes at the man and tightened her fists, waiting for him to greet her and ask how she has been this past year she was gone.

"Who are you?"

Those were the words that came out of his mouth instead of what she was expecting. Shiori blinked. Did she hear him right? – why did he ask that? Was he trying to make the situation more comfortable by pretending not to know her at all, erasing their past's existence?

Shiori crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow. "You don't know who I am?"

The bronze-haired man shook his head, his eyes still focused on Shiori's face. "I don't. Ever since I saw you that day, I.. I don't know how to explain it but it was like, right then, I felt like there was some kind of deep connection that we shared and I was so shocked at the sudden strong feelings rushing through my body – your face kept trying to pull me closer to you." The man said in a desperate tone, searching the young woman's eyes for some sort of answers.

At the moment, Shiori felt like something crawled down her spine. He looked so frightened and vulnerable. But why was he acting like this? Shiori chose to quietly continue stare at him. Confused as to what this man, her past lover, was trying to do.

Itsuki noticed the girl was not willing to reply yet, so he pushed her harder. He needed answers. He was going crazy thinking of this over and over again. "I asked Wakana, but she just brushed it off by saying we were family friends. But, I.. I think we were much more than acquaintances. I was involved in some incident an year ago. Ever since then, I lost all my memories.. I can't remember anything from my past – but when I saw you again that evening, even now, I feel like.. I've seen you before and I have felt this way before. I know I have shared some kind of a strong bond with you before.. please, I beg you. Tell me."

Shiori's eyes widened.

_What? Was this true? _During that incident when they were attacked by masked man in the pond, it caused him to have amnesia? How? How could have this happened? So he really couldn't have moved on since there was nothing to move on from in the first place. Because he couldn't remember her, he couldn't remember _them_ back then.

Shiori couldn't feel like she could move any part of her body, tears were starting to sting her eyes again. So _she_ was the one who betrayed _him_, not him? She wasn't ready for this – she thought of various conversations and scenarios in her head these past days where she would be pretending to be okay and tell him off completely. But this, she never thought about _this_.

Itsuki shook Shiori by her shoulders. "Please – just tell me!"

Shiori could feel like her tears were going to slip down her cheeks anytime. The girl, mustering all the strength she had in her, pushed the man's hands away from her. She narrowed her eyes at him, swallowing, keeping her tears from falling down her face – her vision was starting to get blurry. "You have it wrong, mister. We were nothing – _nothing_. There was absolutely nothing between us. Our parents were friends and you visited our house twice or thrice, but that's it."

With that, she turned and walked away. Itsuki stood there, calling her out for a while but she didn't reply to any of his calls. The bronze-haired man clenched his teeth and decided to leave the party. Wakana noticed her husband exiting the garden. She threw awa the noodles she was eating in the ground. "Honey! Where are you heading off to!? – wait for me!"

The lights, the people, the tears – she was seeing blurs again. Shiori smiled at the blur-formed fireflies and continued to walk past the crowd that was laughing and talking away. She was suppose to be strong. Why was she affected by this so much? The old Shiori had _died_. Why did she care so much? Was it because she was still human, and not a demon like Hotaru? She heard someone call her name from behind but she continued staggering past everyone and everything, to an isolated place of the garden where there were no lights and fireflies. A place where just the moon and stars could watch her.

"Shiori!"

She heard her name once again, this time much louder than before since there was no more crowd. Shiori turned around to see Hotaru with a bitter look on his face. She couldn't really tell what he was a infuriated at, right now she couldn't care less. The woman's husband made his way to her. Tears were running down her face as she looked the demon with a forced smile.

"Itsuki forgot.. He didn't move on, all this time.. he just forgot.." Shiori murmured sitting on the dark grass, her hands placed on the surface to support herself. "He lost all of his memories, Hotaru and I.." the woman started shedding more uncontrollable tears. She didn't want to cry. Then again, did anyone really wanted to cry? – but she was strong. She was the new Shiori, she couldn't cry. Not now.

Then suddenly Shiori felt warmth oozing inside her body, she looked up to see the dark-haired man holding her. His lips were now on hers and he caressed her hair, comforting her. Shiori's eyes widened. She was shocked for the first couple of seconds. She wanted to shove him away and slap but she had no strength to push him off; her arms wouldn't obey.

The girl's cries faded away as the demon tightly embraced her under the moonlight.


	9. Plan

Probably the shortest chapter yet, I'm sorry! There's just a portion of stuff I want you guys to absorb before I move on. Don't want you guys to be hanging on and going like, "o_o omg.. wtf?". This is Hotaru's self-reflection chapter. :O So you all Sebastian can get a glimpse of what I think goes on his head during this story.

This won't make sense to you guys until after you have the read chapter, but -- I know Japan wasn't colonized by anyone but Americans and I adore Germany, I think they're pretty cool and played an important role in the world's history. This is just a work of fiction that was made by a chocoholic who has all sorts of things swimming around his head, nothing more.

_Plan_

"You broke one of the terms in the contract yesterday – I'm curious to know the reason. Did you forget it? Or are you too stupid to understand? Which one of the two is it? Well?" Shiori confronted me in our room before both of us went to eat breakfast. The pure and angelic image she had been wearing the night earlier was long erased and now disclosed the Shiori I saw everyday. Her eyes were narrowed at me, seeking a trace of expression. She crossed her arms like she always did when she was agitated by something, this time probably the lack of reaction I was giving her. She still tried to instigate me.

"How are you thinking of paying for breaking one of the terms in the contract, Hotaru? With your _body_?" the blue-haired girl mocked.

I just stood there, immobile, staring down at the hard floor like Yasu always did. I was unable to meet her gaze for some reason. Was it because I was too embarrassed since this was the first time a female reacted this way to any sort of physical contact from me? Usually human girls appreciated gestures like this from me.

What was the big deal, anyway? It was _just_ a kiss, it only lasted for a few seconds before I pulled myself away from her; it was not like the act was out of love or lust. I was a demon, I ate human emotions. That is how I survived. When she was weeping back then she had all sorts of mixed emotions oozing out of her that I could not resist. I acted out of instinct and immediately groped her and devoured them. She even felt better after it – the weight on her shoulders became lighter. Should not she be thankful to me? Why was she angry instead?

Hmm. This is a guess but when I kissed her I tasted her being astonished and perplexed. Like she didn't know what to do or how to react. Was she reacting this way because this was her first...

_Kiss_? My eye's widened as I continued to stare at the ground below me.

Shiori groaned in frustration as she finally realized I was not going to be answering her, she began rubbing her temple. "I guess it was just a strange night filled with bizarre events, I'm going to pretend like it was all a nightmare," Shiori said walking away and tying a chunk of her wavy strands into a tiny ball infront of a mirror as she normally did every morning. "Well, anyways, I'm kind of glad I went through it all – except for the last bit of course," Shiori paused and turned her head at me, narrowing her eyes again at me. I tried to hide my strong urge to chuckle. "I'm over with all the weak, suppressed feelings I thought I did not have. Now, since everything's been taken care of, it's time we should start our plan."

"Yes, I suggest we do it right away," I agreed with a nod.

"Oh, and Hotaru, I may have excused this incident this time but if anything like this ever happens again, the consequences are going to be a lot more _drastic_. I hope you understand what I mean."

I did.

---

Long ago, this village that was known as Hikari was a part of a bigger village that was known as _Omura_. Because of the people's differences, the two were torn apart.

After a while, the village of Omura had allowed German forces known as _Flugel_ to discreetly enter Japan and colonize them since the people of the village were easily bribed by their money, goods, and technology. This was the only way they could come in Japan since the government of this country banned all foreign countries to come in their territory. The village of Omura was then developed, it was transformed and ruled by the Germans who acted as shadows and worked behind the scenes. Omura was now a town that was known all over in Japan.

The Flugel pressured Shiori's family to agree to this colonization act, but they refused immediately and wanted nothing to do with it. They didn't want them spreading the word around about what they were trying to do, so they killed all of them. No one really knows about this. I, of course, am a exception. I used my special researching skills and found all of this out.

Well, I _did_ have to shed blood a little for this tiny piece of information. Tiny details, you know..

Our mission – it was simple.

We were going to eliminate them.


	10. Disguise

:O This is the first time, _ever_, I've ever reached a chapter ten in my writing. Woohoo!!

Oh, terrible news: starting tomorrow I have college -- registered for five classes yet again for my second semster. I don't know how my new scheduale is going to be like but I'm guessing it'll be hectic. This obviously means no more almost-everyday updates, but I'll be updating weekly, sorry! I'm _not_ going to be abondoning this fic and I hope you guys won't too. I'm going to give a shout out to everyone who has supported me so far, thank you all so much!

-- ichixichigo

-- WickedLovelyRocks

-- MrAnonymousDude

-- Sessho's Girl

-- **Yuki Uzumaki**

-- **anon**

-- **Shikaido Yuki**

-- Nameless person

& also DarkFlame Alchemist, rozenstrawberry, That Reminiscent Sky, xXkono-hana-sakuya-himeXx, SaChan22, and Kumiko-sensei.

_Disguise _

Shiori looked around the veiled cart, it was full of young women like herself. The girl groaned inwardly as one of the girls sitting beside her started weeping on her shoulder, the experience became more horrifying as the started girl wiping her snot with Shiori's clothes.

Shiori hated overcrowded places. She didn't know how to explain it but at times where there were a low of people she felt like something was constricting her, she would have trouble breathing and feel light-headed all of a sudden. Thankfully, she wasn't having any of those nausea-like symptoms right now. It was still uncomfortable how cramped the transport was. She hoped they would arrive at their destination as soon as possible.

The Flugel ordered some men from Omura to search for young attractive women from all around, abduct them, and use them for their indulgence. The would later git rid of them once they've had their fun. It was sick people like them that crushed the innocent, pure hearts growing inside people in the world. This way she could stop them from exploiting women too.

Of course, they could never lay a hand on Shiori – that was utterly impossible and an amusing thought to her. If they tried, they wouldn't be breathing the next second. Shiori was placed here between these victims on purpose. This was a part of their plan.

Hotaru and Shiori discreetly followed these people as they abducted women from one place to another. When they saw the chance Hotaru sped up to the cart with his inhuman speed, placed Shiori in the cart when the Omura men were shoving newly found girls inside the cart.

No one spotted Hotaru, it all happened in a blink of an eye. The girls who were inside the cart later did wonder when Shiori arrived but shrugged it off because they had more things to worry about. This cart was headed to The Flugel base, right to the culprits who killed her family. What was Shiori's part in all of this? She had to pretend to be one of the victims. Once in the base, She would distract them (or assassinate them if given an opportunity) until Hotaru was done with whatever he was suppose to do.

Shiori looked around to see all the women cuddled together, they were all terrified and some of them even weeped out of helplessness. Who wouldn't be in their state if they had been snatched away from their homes and forced to go along with strange people to be brought to even more stranger people.

Shiori felt like she had to act as one of the victims in the cart to not attract too much attention, so she thought she'd put up an act. "Oh, no! What's going to happen us!? I'm so scared!.." Shiori cried out and everyone in return started embracing and patting her back in return. _Get away from me you dumb women_, Shiori gnarled inwardly as everyone comforted her.

Shiori briefly glanced at this one girl that stood out of the crowd. She looked slightly younger than Shiori and had ivory-colored hair that reached a little below her chin, her bangs were arched and she had bright orange-colored eyes. She was beautiful. She didn't react like the other women – or actually, wasn't reacting _at all_. She just sat there silently, thinking of something.

---

There he stood, Lieutenant General Eugen Oelberg. He had dark hair that was gelled towards the side and a small mustache on the bottom of his nose. He was lean and brawn, and wore some kind of azure-colored uniform that everyone in the base seemed to be wearing. The man looked like he was in his forties. Shiori felt her fists tightening. _Murderer_.

The Flugel headquarters was a giant manor that was located in some isolated mountainous region near Omura. _Hotaru probably found this place out by now_, Shiori thought. The manor expanded greatly with many rooms. All these people were holding strange weapons.

The women were all told to line up infront of the old man.

"My, my, such beautiful women." The man grinned as he rubbed his hands together and gawked at all the women one-by-one, his voice was quite deep and rough-sounding. Shiori wanted to kick his head, a thousand times till he bled and asked for forgiveness. Did she really have to go through this? Was this really necessary? Or was Hotaru was making her do this as revenge for speaking harshly to him earlier? He was a demon, afterall.

"I love to spend my time with all of you but I can't, because I want to commit myself to all of you and give you each equal time. For that reason, I'll be picking three of you every night until I'm done with this batch. Is that fine with all of you?"

Without waiting for a reply, he started walking back-and-forth to make up his mind. _Bastard_, Shiori thought shutting her eyes to bury her annoyance. She couldn't let the anger get the best of her.

---

"Hmm, I choose you. You'll be my first lady." the man howled, his voice was pretty loud. Shiori blinked, he was standing right infront of her with a shady expression. Shiori made a face at him. _I despise you, Hotaru. When this is all over, I'm going to murder you. Count on it._

"Your beauty is very intoxicating.. what is your name?" The man asked, gazing down at the girl's body now.

"Hinata. Hinata Fujioka." Shiori fibbed, staring at him with a bored expression.

"Very beautiful.. Please stand over here." The man pointed to an empty space and muttered, walking away and finding the two other girls for the night. Shiori stood at the place where she was supposed to and sighed. This was going to be a very long night.


	11. Caught

I think I'll be updating every Saturday nights. :O My first week of college was quiiite hectic, I just hope it gets a lot of fun from now on and I get to learn a lot of things. Thank you guys again for all the support. :D Last time I did a shoutout but I left the people who have been cheering me on this entire time: Jazzie, Noodles, and Yagu -- thank you all so much for reading this and encouraging me. I appreciate you all very much!

_Caught_

There I was, in the midst of this madness. I didn't know if this was included in the plan or not, but nonetheless I went along with the situation. His widespread room was divided into two bases. The lower base was linked to the entrance and contained all the furniture and a lot more of luxuries a bedroom would require, while the higher base was an empty space for his giant bed that was draped by curtains from all sides to rest.

We were all gathered in the stairs that intersected the two bases.

Besides me were the other two girls Eugen had chosen to have his little fun with tonight. One of them was the girl that was monotonous in the carriage, she still didn't say a word or showed any sort of reaction from before. She had short ivory-colored hair and tangerine-colored eyes; her expression was the same during her ride over here – _blank_. The girl's name was Rena. She seemed really strange and it seemed like she was lost in her own world. She was the second to be chosen because of her unique and beautiful appearance, she reminded me of a star for some reason

The other girl was much younger than both me and Rena, she seemed like she was only fifteen years old. Her name was Shinju. She was petite and had round hazel-colored eyes. Her hair was periwinkle-colored and was tied into two buns, long and thin strands of her hair extended from the ends of the bun and reached her knees. She was a proper lady and acted like one despite her age. There was something mystifying about her. She nodded and smiled at both of us politely when we entered the room, but both me and Rena in return just stared at her with a bored expression. Not really showing any sign of wanting to socialize at the moment. The little girl's face fell.

"Well now, now that we have settled down.. what should we do first, my beautiful lilies?" The man asked sliding his fingers down Shinju's long strands. The little girl shrieked in return and scuttled away a little with a reddened face. Eugen laughed out loud.

This _thing_ wasn't human, he was an animal – no, animals were far better and caring than he was. He was the lowest of the low, far lower than _demons_ or anything else that sprouts from the pits of hells. I knew I had to pretend to look helpless and kind but I couldn't help glaring at him. He just made me _so mad_, I could feel myself becoming hot with anger. I wish I could just –

"Lieutenant General! Lieutenant, there seems to be an emergency!"

Three men burst open the the army man's door. Wait, the door was open the entire time? He was planning to have his 'fun' with the doors _open_? Bastard.

Eugen gnarled his teeth. "What's the matter? I told you not to disturb me unless it was very important. I am in no mood to handle childish affairs."

"It is, General! It seems like there has been an _issue_ at The Morrigan." One of the men's face formed a frown.

The Morrigan? What in the world was that? An issue.. I knew right then, Hotaru probably had something to do with this. He had found where the captain was. I felt my body tense and my heart skipping a beat. I couldn't show it though, I tightened my fists to sustain my body to react in a way that would catch attention. I looked at Rena and she had started panting, her pupils were dilating and her fingers were flexing in all directions. It was like she was having a panic attack. I blinked at her for a couple of seconds.

I looked over at Shiju and the little girl was just looking around, baffled. It was as if she was worried that the Flugen were going through a problem. She looked at me with a worried expression and I stared back at her with narrowed eyes. She quickly looked away. I felt like the environment became ten times more awkward than it already was.

And then fate pulled one of its strings again, another twist in my life occured.

Rena stood up from her position and pulled out a compact machine that was hidden within her, somewhere. Shinju gasped as the short-haired girl triggered the machine and immediately killed one of the Flugen men. Eugen was taken back by this action but he wasn't unprepared. He took out a machine similar to Rena's and pointed towards her as did the other two. They tried to shoot her but she jumped away with cat-like reflexes.

My mind was going through so many things at that moment. I didn't really understand what was happening. I didn't know what kind of weapons they were armed with, I didn't know what was going through everyone's minds, and I didn't know who exactly was Rena and why she chose to take such an action suddenly.

I did, however, figured her objective was the same as mine: to kill Flugen. Whatever the reason may be, I didn't care. We had the same enemies, this meant we were in this together. So it didn't matter, I didn't think of what was going to happen to us after this at that time. I stood up from my position and took out two daggers from within my kimono that I hid pretty well, Rena cast a glance at me. I spun around and flung my blades against the two men who were pointing their devices at Rena. Shinju screamed at the sight of two heads being separated from their bodies.

It didn't matter, though. The next thing I knew lots more people barged inside the room and we were surrounded.


	12. Contract

Thanks for the support every, I really appreciate it. :D You guys are awesome! After this chapter, I don't think any of you will be confused with Shiori and Hotaru's short past they shared before the fanfic's plot started. Yes, I did not continue the cliffhanger from the previous chapter, so you all have to wait some more. Bwahah! I know I'm evil.

_Contract_

Odd square-shaped pattern ran across the shiny floor. There were no walls, no ceiling, no nothing. The platform the young girl was standing on was surrounded by a black abyss. Shiori didn't want to think what would happen if she accidentally fell of the edges of the floor that was elevating in the middle of nothing.

_Who are you? _

_Where am I? _

_Am I still me?_

Shiori found herself wanting to ask these questions as she saw black smog immersing and forming into a human figure one out of thin air. She found herself being mesmerized by this unfamiliar aura that had made its way to the eternal abyss, she was unable to speak or move.

Infront of her stood a man with ebony-colored hair and eyes that looked like they were made out of burning lava, his skin seemed like it lacked color and was frosty-looking. The man smirked at the baffled girl as last bits of smog drifted away, revealing his bizarre clothes that looked so out of place to her. Nonetheless, Shiori found the man enthralling somehow.

Shiori then noticed she hadn't been breathing for a couple of seconds. The blue-haired girl inhaled deeply and hugged herself, gathering all the strength she had cooped inside her to talk and move again. "A-am I dead? Are you a death god or an angel? – am I going to heaven? Please tell me I am!" her voice echoed through the place and she could feel the sound waves hitting back in the face, making her knees quiver.

That's right, she had fallen into the waterfall and remembered hurting her head in the fall. She was floating in the water, surrounded by her blood. She had to be dead. But as she looked down clothes, there weren't bloody or torn like they had been a while ago. Her bruises, cuts, injuries, and any sorts of marks somehow disappeared.

The man in return laughed out loud at the young lady's question. His eyes seemed to be glowing even more brighter as he laughed at her then, lighting up with amusement and deviousness. Shiori waited for an answer till he composed himself, spellbound.

Was what she said had just said really that hilarious? Her death didn't seem like a joke to _her_.

"Why, are you not a peculiar one! _Angel_? _Heaven_? – my, you have got it all wrong there, miss. Humans are such foolish creatures." The man said the last bit to himself but loud enough for Shiori to hear as he massaged his temple with a sneer.

"Yes, you are dead. But I am afraid I am not an angel, and I am definitely not here to take you to heaven. I am a _demon_, a pleasure to have a chance to meet you, miss." The man said pulling Shiori's hand forcefully and planting a kiss on it. Shiori hastily pulled her hand away from him.

A demon? Why did a demon appear in her death? Was this some kind of an obstacle for her to pass to go heaven? God's test? If she really died, she'd rather be in heaven with the rest of her family.

Shiori had been taught about demons and spirits ever since she was little, priests in Hikari even held rituals so that demons and impure spirits wouldn't harm the people of the small, peaceful village. However, this demon didn't fit the descriptions of the ones that were told. He looked just like a human, with a gorgeous appearance.

"I know what you are thinking right now, _miss_. I was summoned by the hatred in you as you fell from the waterfall to embrace your death," the man spat miss in a sweet but vicious tone at the same time, matching his smile. "I am here to make a proposition. I am giving you a chance to live again. For a price, of course.."

The demon's sneer widened as the young girl's eyes widened in horror. He could taste fear and anxiety.

_Scrumptious_.

---

"Another revenge scenario? – Oh my, have we not seen enough of those already? Humans are so predictable." The demon said as he pressed his palm against one of his cheeks and yawned, seeming obviously unexcited about his situation.

They were now sitting in a traditional Japanese rock garden, also known as the zen garden. The demon had somehow transformed the dark environment to an outdoors one. Shiori figured it was all an illusion.

There was no grass but tiny stones scattered across the surface in a wavy pattern with large rocks scattered around everywhere, the two being were occupying two of them. Shiori made a face at the dark-haired creature from the top of her rock. So far, she had noticed he was really rude and had no manners at all, even for a demon. He was quite the horrible thing.

"But then again – come to think of it, there is a twist in this scenario, isn't there? Usually, humans make me their servant, slave, or bodyguard but you are ready to make me your _spouse_? That's definitely a first." The demon glanced at the girl and a teasing smile spread across his face. "I am curious as to what is your reasoning behind this. Surely, you haven't fallen for me already, have you? Humans are such simple-minded creatures, afterall."

Shiori chose to ignore the irritating demon's later question. "If I make you my servant I can't keep you around with me all the time without making it appear suspicious to everyone since it's considered inappropriate for a master and a servant to be so close, especially of the opposite sex." The girl explained, evading the demon's gaze and looking up at the false jade-colored sky.

"This way.. you won't have an excuse to be away from me, at all. The people who want to kill me will obviously strike again, so I can't let down my guard. I can't afford to die again – not before completing my task."

"Hmm. I see."

" – I did prepare some terms, though."

The demon cocked a dark eyebrow. "_Terms_?"

"You said it was an official contract between a human and a demon, right? Every contract has terms. I'm giving away my soul to you, afterall. It's my right to have terms." Shiori said staring at the demon with a piercing look. Her face somehow still hinted hesitation.

Hotaru sighed. "You humans and your rights, so sickening. Fine, state them."

"_First_, you have to help me successfully get revenge on the people that killed my family, without a doubt. _Second_, you have to make sure my clan is stabilize before it's my time to go. _Third_, you can't be rude to me in any way – and stop saying bad things about humans! _Fourth_, there will be absolutely no vulgarity, you can not touch with me without my permission. No physical contact whatsoever. _Fifth_ and the final one, is you have to train me to fight so I can stand up for myself when the time is right. You have to listen to all my other orders too, these are just the things you must know." The human anticipated the demon's reaction with high spirited Earth-colored eyes.

The demon smiled inwardly. He had to admit, he was a little taken back. _She had thought about it, thoroughly_.

"Oh my, so many terms.. are you really worth all that trouble? Fine, I guess I am in no position to refuse them."

Shiori beamed.

---

"Before I finalize our contract there is one last thing you are suppose to do, name me." There were now standing on the green-colored clouds. The human was starting to get tired of the random changing of environments. It felt pretty nostalgic. It was really cold, too.

Shiori cocked her head to the side. "Why can't we just use your real name? – come to think of it, you haven't even told me your name yet! I can't be bounded to a person who I don't even know the name of. What is it?"

The ominous-being grinned, revealing his tiny fangs on the top of his teeth. Shiori wondered if he was showing one of his demonic features as an act of intimidation.

"I have no name. My masters name me."

Shiori thought about this for a minute before answering again. How strange, demons didn't even have names? This was so trouble. Naming him something normal would feel really strange to her. But she had to think of something.

Think, think, think.

She got it!

"Okay, then I name you _Hotaru_."

The demon raised one of his eyebrows. "_Hotaru_? It does not really suit my style at all, but I suppose I can work with it. I am in no position to do or say anything about it."

He removed one of his gloves, exposing his long black nails and a marked hand. The newly named demon walked over to his soon-to-be-owner and shoved his hand in midair, motioning for her to do the same.

Shiori blinked, looking completely bewildered. This was all so strange, she's guessing it wasn't going to be any less strange from here on either. The nineteen-year-old took a deep breath and raised her petite hand to imitate his demonic one, nonetheless.

The demon's eyes then blazed again, this time the redness of his eyes pouring out of them. The girl flinched, she felt her feet starting to sink inside the oddly-colored clouds. The man's hand that was touching the girl's glowed and an electric-purple beam started to circle his hand, and then made its way by crawling over to the girl's body and seeping inside of her chest. Shiori gasped.

The girl felt like her entire body was on fire, she felt like something was roaming inside her body. She screamed, thinking the pain would decrease by doing so. It didn't.

The violet light sprouted across from her chest to her neck, stinging her skin. It seemed like an eternity until it slowly faded away, leaving a pentacle marked across her upper body from then on. Thus, the contract between the human girl and demon came into existence.


End file.
